Conserving and Restoring Wildflower-rich Grasslands in Monmouthshire

Sign the Pledge for a Bee Friendly Monmouthshire

Monmouthshire Meadows is one of the groups supporting Bee Friendly Monmouthshire, and on 10th October we joined other supporters at Kate Humble’s farm in Penallt to launch the campaign and the Bee Friendly Pledge. This is a promise to take actions to provide food, habitat and safety for bees and other insect pollinators, by

Providing pollinator-friendly flowers throughout the year: open-shaped flowers where insects can reach the nectar and pollen

Giving places for insect pollinators to live: long grass, hollow trees, cavities large and small in walls for bees to nest inside

Avoiding chemicals that harm pollinators: herbicides that destroy their habitat and insecticides that kill insect pollinators

Of course our members are already providing habitat for pollinators by managing their grassland for wild flowers but we can all make sure that our gardens are pollinator-friendly too. To show your support you can sign and return the promise and help to publicise and promote the actions to spread good practice to your friends and neighbours.

As Nicola Bradbear, a leading member of Bee Friendly Monmouthshire, made clear in her excellent talk at the MMG Autumn meeting, nobody wants to harm bees but often people are not aware that their manicured lawns are like deserts to a bee, and that some plants are just not suitable for insects, such as double or multi-petalled flowers which block access to the nectar and pollen. Common pesticides don’t just kill ‘pests’, they kill bees and other pollinators too (you may know of the controversy around pesticides containing neonicotinoids and the campaign to get them banned).